July 20th 2016 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Seio Nage, Double Ankle Sweep, Butterfly Guard Hook Sweep
Partner: Tom

Got to work on a butterfly guard technique that Greg was showing John the other day.  You grab both collars and scoot under them and kick them way up.  Then as they come back down you should be able to get a great underhook. 

Tips on this weeks techniques:

• Seio Nage: The biggest tip I've been giving this week is to make the muscle arm strong and don't try to grab their arm.  When I've worked on this throw with Bob he says that this is an arm throw rather than a hip throw and I'm starting to figure that out.
• Double Ankle Sweep: Working on grip breaks is pretty important for this technique as you need both of your hands free to grab their ankles.
• Hook Sweep: The thing that I helps me a lot with this sweep is a strong underhook that it tilted upward and then I hang off of the other arm to get their weight shifted.  With a week underhook my partner usually is able to put their weight down on it and prevent the sweep.

Rolling: Closed Guard, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Tom, Justin, Dave

Helped Justin with some grip breaking half way through our roll.  He was using a brute force method and I showed him how to do it more technically by pushing on the thumb muscle and moving your body away from the grip.  I used the butterfly technique from earlier a few times and instantly feel like it's going to be a part of my game.  Love finding things like this. 

Office Hours Partner: Jerad, Dave, Justin, Tom

Jerad did the usual thing of taking me apart piece by piece.  I almost passed his guard at one point and he acknowledged it so that was a good thing.  I'm not really sure what he's doing differently than anyone else but it's kind of like he's always slightly out of the position that I want him to be in to do what I want.  Then after he mounts me I have to work really hard to defend and try to escape. 

Talked to Dave and Justin a bit about how I developed my game using mind maps and the techniques and positions that I focused on for competition class.  I think the mind maps are helpful for both figuring out what you're good at and where you have holes in your game.